Vladimir Egorovich Makovsky

Adolph Gustav Hochbaum, Prague, circa 1938
Thence by descent

St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, 1863-64, no. 86

E.V. Zhuravleva, V.E. Makovsky, Moscow, 1972, p.14, illustrated

This painting seems to be in beautiful condition. The canvas has been lined using glue as an adhesive. The paint layer is quite dirty and will respond very well to cleaning. Beneath the layer of dirt and yellow varnish there do not appear to be any retouches. There is a small structural dent and possible paint loss in the drawing of the head in the lower right and a very slight scratch to the varnish in the center left. Overall the condition excellent and will require little or no retouching once it has been cleaned. The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Vladimir Makovsky was a prominent member of the Itinerants and a master of the genre scene. A devout populist, he used his later paintings to call attention to the social inequalities of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. Perceiving nuanced visual cues that provide insight into the human character, he depicted hermetic narratives through the simplest combinations of gestures.

He was born into an artistically gifted family: his father Yegor was a passionate collector and a founder of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where Vladimir began to study at the age of twelve in 1858; his older brother Konstantin was a recognized portrait painter and master of historical compositions. When Vladimir matriculated at the Moscow School, Konstantin transferred to attend the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts.

Vladimir executed the present picture, Three Generations, when he was still quite young, at the age of 18, during a time when he was interested in perspectival recession and iconography. The composition depicts a childhood episode from the lives of the now well-known pair of artists. Yegor, the head of the household, sits in the center of the room with an album resting upon his knees as he shows drawings to young Vladimir. Konstantin, meanwhile, sits at an easel by a window in the next room. Their resemblance and character are acutely portrayed as they engage in these activities. No less important is the interior, which gives a sense of the atmosphere within the Makovsky residence. On the walls hang pictures such as Old Rome by Sylvestr Shchedrin, Karl Brullov's copy of Ecce Homo by Guido Reni, and on the bookcase rests a marble bust of Karl Brullov, created by sculptor I. Vitali. The household effects are rendered meticulously: the still life on the table, the portraits, the ruffling of the rug on the floor, all drawn with the exactitude of a "glance."

Before its arrival at auction, the existence of Three Generations was known to scholars only through archival documents and old publications. In a report from the Moscow Schoool dated 1863-64, pedagogue E.S. Sorokin noted that over the course of the year, his young student Vladimir Makovsky worked on a picture titled "Family Scene in the Parlor of Amateur Arts" when not doing basic coursework. The picture was declared a success and was sent to the St. Petersburg Academy, where it was hung in an exhibition during the 1863-64 academic year. It was included in the catalogue for that exhibition under the title "Household Scene" (no. 86). For this work the young artist was awarded a small silver medal. In the monograph by E.V. Zhuravleva entitled V.E. Makovsky (Moscow, 1972), the painting is reproduced in black and white, and the text indicates that its whereabouts were unknown.

Despite the fact that this is one of the earliest paintings in the oeuvre of Vladimir Makovsky, the master's signature style is present throughout the canvas. He renders the scene with a sense of nostalgia, and in doing so, he preserves a deeply personal memory of this warm household hearth.